Why we are not reporting on the civil proceedings against Meta opened in California

On August 18, 2026, opening discussions began in Oakland, California, in a civil case brought by state attorneys general concerning Meta and the two platforms Facebook and Instagram (NPR; ABC News). This is judicial matter, and it is exactly what our charter forbids us from reporting on.

The suspension of crime and court reporting is not a judgment on the importance of the case. It is a choice of scope: trials, investigations and criminal cases require daily verification of court filings, an adversarial process that a small newsroom cannot guarantee without making mistakes, and they produce asymmetric damage when mistakes are made. We prefer to declare the void rather than fill it badly. The measure can be revised by the publisher, with an indicative criterion of three months of editions without disputes.

There is a second reason, more specific to this case. The proceeding concerns how the platforms are designed and what effects they produce on minors: a field in which the figures for damages sought or contested, expert reports and expected testimony circulate in very different versions depending on who provides them, and in which the risk of turning parties’ claims into established facts is high. In court, those claims will be examined by a judge; in the meantime they remain one side’s arguments, and reporting them as news would mean giving them a weight they do not yet have.

What we do cover, and will continue to cover, is what lies outside the courtroom: regulatory authorities’ decisions on the platforms, age-verification obligations introduced by law in various countries, public data on platform use by minors, and the financial statements and corporate communications of the companies involved. If the proceeding produces regulatory obligations or product changes, those will be regulatory and technology news, not court reporting, and you will find them here.

Until then, readers of Redazione Zero will find on this matter only this note and links to the outlets covering it in court: anyone wishing to read about it should start there. Today’s edition’s technology coverage remains focused on the rules currently in force for the platforms, not on the trial.

Sources: NPR; ABC News